Vietnam loses 0-4 to Japan at AFC Women’s Asian Cup

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam suffered
from a 0-4 loss to Japan in the Group B opener of the 2018 Asian Football
Confederation (AFC) Women’s Asian Cup that took place in Amman, Jordan, on
April 7.

With a lineup of highly skilled players, it
was not surprising as Japan took control of the game right from the first
whistle.

The former world champions only needed three
minutes to concretise their domination, with Kumi Yokoyama firing an
unstoppable attempt from Mana Iwabuchi’s pass to open the scoring for Japan.

The Vietnamese women had hardly come round
from the first goal when they conceded a second scored by Emi Nakajima 14
minutes later. It was Iwabuchi again who provided an excellent right-wing
assist for Nakajima to tap in from close range.

Vietnam also deployed a number of
counterattacks, which, however, were easily blocked by Japan’s solid defence.

The Japanese players continued to find the
net in the 53th and 57 minutes, and maintained their domination until the end
of the match.

Meanwhile, the concerted efforts made by
Vietnam could not help them to avoid a straight 0-4 defeat overall.

Vietnam is scheduled to face Australia on April
10 evening (local time), and the Republic of Korea (RoK) on April 13.

With the opening loss, the Vietnamese players
are not allowed to lose any of their remaining two games against Australia and
the RoK (on April 13) if they want to achieve a top-three finish in Group B to
advance to the playoff match against Group A’s third-place team for the fifth
World Cup ticket.

Earlier, the team finished a ten-day training
camp in Germany, with one win and one draw with the local women’s football
club.-VNA